Secure instant messaging system

ABSTRACT

A secure instant messaging (IM) system integrates secure instant messaging into existing instant messaging systems. A certificate authority (CA) issues security certificates to users binding the user&#39;s IM screen name to a public key, used by sending users to encrypt messages and files for the user. The CA uses a subscriber database to keep track of valid users and associated information, e.g. user screen names, user subscription expiration dates, and enrollment agent information. A user sends his certificate to an instant messaging server which publishes the user&#39;s certificate to other users. Users encrypt instant messages and files using an encryption algorithm and the recipient&#39;s certificate. A sending user can sign instant messages using his private signing key. The security status of received messages is displayed to recipients.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/772,041, filed Apr. 30, 2010, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/553,673, filed Oct. 27, 2006, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/371,601, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,131,003, filed Feb. 20, 2003, the entirety of each of whichis incorporated herein by this reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The invention relates to instant messaging services across the Internet.More particularly, the invention relates to the secure transmission andreception of messages and files via an instant messaging service acrossthe Internet.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Instant Messaging has changed a large population of Internet users'lives over the few years that such a service has been available. Usershave the ability to conduct real-time conversations with other users.Friends and family keep in contact through group chatrooms andone-on-one chats. An entire culture has been created based upon InstantMessaging.

Users have the option to create lists of usernames that the user canmonitor. The Instant Messaging programs notify the user when any of theusers in the username lists are active and online.

Referring to FIG. 1, User 1 101 communicates to User 2 102 through theInternet 103. Messages sent between User 1 101 and user 2 102 arereceived and forwarded by the Instant Messaging Service 104. Forexample, the Instant Messaging Service 104 receives a message sent fromUser 1 101 and forwards the message to User 2 102 and vice versa. TheInstant Messaging Service 104 also tells the users which users on theirusername lists are logged on.

With respect to FIG. 2, of the instant messaging services currentlyavailable from America Online, Incorporated, Microsoft Corporation,Hotmail, and Yahoo, Incorporated, America Online, Incorporated's AOLInstant Messenger (AIM) 201 service is the most popular and is on theforefront of instant messaging technology. AIM has been very successfulin the home and consumer market, allowing people to communicate withfriends and relatives immediately all over the United States and theworld. AIM is so prolific that the phrases “buddy list” (a feature ofAIM) and “I-M me” have become part of the current Pop culture.

Instant Messaging has operated in a unsecure environment. Typicalconsumers do not have any use for secure communications with otherusers. However, a growing number of people use AIM in the businessenvironment to communicate with co-workers, and with people they dobusiness with at other companies.

While business users find the convenience of AIM very useful forbusiness purposes, they quite often have a nagging worry over theprivacy of the information that is sent through this service. These“enterprise” users would like to have assurance that their data cannotbe viewed by outside parties such as ISPs, network routers and the AIMservice itself. America Online, Incorporated announced in May of 2002that it would be providing a secure AIM service that would allow usersto transmit and receive messages in a secure environment. A non-publicBeta test program of the secure AIM product was conducted in May of2002.

It would be advantageous to provide a secure instant messaging systemthat provides secure messaging and file transfer between users. It wouldfurther be advantageous to provide a secure instant messaging systemthat operates within the current instant messaging architecture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a secure instant messaging system. The systemprovides secure instant message and file transfer between users and peerpublication of user security certificates. In addition, the inventionoperates within the current instant messaging architecture.

A preferred embodiment of the invention integrates secure text instantmessaging and secure file transfers into existing instant messagingsystems. At least one certificate authority (CA) is provided that issuesa security certificate to a user that binds the user's instant messagingscreen name to a public key. The public key is used by other users toencrypt messages and files sent to the user and by the user to decryptthe received messages and files.

A subscriber database is used by the CA to keep track of valid users andtheir associated information, such as: user screen names, usersubscription expiration dates, and enrollment agent information.

A user sends his certificate to the invention's instant messaging serverwhich publishes the user's certificate to other users that have the useron their preferred user list. Other users that are listed on the user'spreferred user list can be optionally automatically notified when theuser's certificate changes. The instant messaging server creates a hashvalue of the user's certificate and passes this fingerprint to thelisted users. The hash value allows the recipients to decide if theyneed to update their caches with a new copy of the user's certificate.The recipient compares the received hash value with one that exists intheir cache. If the hash values do not match or the cache hash valuedoes not exist, then the recipient requests the user's certificate andhash value from the instant messaging server. The user can also send hiscertificate status information for publication to the recipients.

The user can sign instant messages using his private signing key.Recipients verify the sender's signature by using the sender's publicsigning key.

Instant messages and files are encrypted by a sending user using anencryption algorithm and the recipient's certificate. The encryptionalgorithm can be attached to the encrypted message or file for use bythe recipient to decrypt the message or file. The message or file issent to the instant messaging server which forwards it to the receivinguser if the user is logged on. The security status of each receivedinstant message is displayed to the user.

The sending user can also wrap the encrypted instant message or fileusing a wrapping algorithm and wrapping key. The wrapping algorithm andkey are attached to the encrypted instant message or file. The wrappingalgorithm and key are extracted by the recipient and used to unwrap theencrypted instant message or file.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe following detailed description in combination with the accompanyingdrawings, illustrating, by way of example, the principles of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a prior art approach of an instant messagingservice across the Internet according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a login screen for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block schematic diagram of a secure AIM system integratedinto an AIM system with secure AIM clients according to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a block schematic diagram showing communications flow betweensecure AIM modules during a user enrollment process according to theinvention;

FIG. 5 is a block schematic diagram showing communications flow betweensecure AIM modules for publishing a user certificate according to theinvention; and

FIG. 6 is a block schematic diagram showing communications flow betweensecure AIM modules for publishing a user certificate and revocationinformation according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention is embodied in a secure instant messaging system. A systemaccording to the invention provides secure instant message and filetransfer between users and peer publication of user securitycertificates. In addition, the invention operates within the currentinstant messaging architecture.

The invention provides a secure instant messaging system that providesusers with a secure end-to-end message and file transfer service. Theinvention uses the same basic infrastructure as existing instantmessaging services. Secure messaging and file transfers occur betweenany client using the instant messaging service, e.g., desktop computers,laptop computers, portable devices, and wireless devices users have thesame basic user interface (UI) that they are used to such as addingother user's screen names to their buddy lists, being notified whenusers on their buddy lists are logged on, chat UI windows, etc.

Data transferred using the invention's message and file transferprotocol are encrypted while transmitted over the network. Encryption istypically only required during the transfer. The data are stored at eachend in normal (plaintext) form.

The data transferred are protected against alteration while transmittedover the network. A cryptographic signature on a file or document can beused to verify the data in the file and the identity of the signer. Theprotocol also ensures that the correct data are received for an entirefile or document, even when only parts of the file are transmittedbecause portions of the file were already on the recipient's system(partial transfer mode).

When a portion of a file is already present on the recipient's system,the invention tries to optimize the data bandwidth by sending only theremainder of the file. Current file transfer protocols use a “checksum”value to check that the data that is already available is correct. Thisis not secure. The invention modifies the protocol to include a new(optional) value that is a SHA-1 hash of the portion of the file that isalready available. The algorithm used to compute the hash is also sentin the message to allow changes in the future. The sending client checksthis value to determine whether to send the entire file, or just theremainder.

The sending client sends the entire file if the hash does not match, orit does not recognize the algorithm used for the hash. The transfernever fails when the hash does not match—instead the entire file isresent.

The invention provides a means to identify both the sender and therecipient of a data transfer. In particular, the identity of a user thatis requesting a file must be securely established so that access controldecisions can be made based on that identity. The identity of the usertransmitting the file needs to be securely established so that therecipient can be sure he is receiving the information from the source heexpected. If multiple steps are used in the data transfer, the inventionensures that the same identity is used for the entire transfer.

The invention also generates a receipt that indicates that a file ordocument was received and will be processed. Receipts can contain adate, the name of the file and (optionally) a value computed from thecontents of the file. Receipts acknowledge that the data was receivedand will be processed, not that the data is correct.

The file sending client is able to request a receipt by setting apredefined bit in one of the protocol header fields being currently usedin instant messaging systems. When the transfer is complete, therecipient constructs the receipt and sends it in a predefined protocolrecord before the normal completion record.

The invention generates a cryptographic signature on a file or documentthat can be used to verify the data in the file and the identity of thesigner. Signatures are typically stored separately from the contents ofthe file so application programs can use the transferred file withoutneeding to process signature values. The invention can transmit thesignatures as an additional file associated with the primary file.

Signatures are generated by a signature generation tool and stored in aseparate file with a related file name. For example, a document called“expenses.xls” would be “signed” by the tool, creating a new file called“expenses.xls.sig”.

Clients that support secure file transfer recognize the relatedsignature file and can, for example, transfer the two files together, oroffer to transfer the signature in addition to the data file itself.Clients can create these signature files on the fly by creating thecontents in a temporary location, or in memory, and transmitting them tothe recipient by specifying the related file name. This operation can beinvoked by checking a box in the file transfer UI.

The invention is compatible with clients that do not support the securemode. Secure clients are able to perform file transfers without thesecurity features and display the status of the transfer to the user.

If both clients in the file transfer are capable of secure mode, thepeer-to-peer connection made between them will be established using SSL.The ability to use the secure channel will be indicated in the proposaloffered by the client initiating the request and must be also beindicated in the acceptance to the proposal.

The SSL channel is authenticated at both ends by using certificatesissued for screen names such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screennames. The AIM client accepting the connection (listener) will use an“encryption” certificate to perform the role of an SSL server. The AIMclient establishing the connection will use a “signature” certificate toperform the role of an SSL client.

The clients use the existing file transfer protocol of the instantmessaging system (with some modifications) over the SSL channel. The SSLchannel provides security for protocol records (headers etc). Thisprovides privacy for the file names being transferred, and preventsmodifications to the requests and responses in the protocol. Inaddition, the identities established by SSL are used to make accesscontrol decisions.

The invention provides for instant messaging, but is not limited to, thefollowing:

1. Transmits messages confidentially (using encryption) from the senderall the way to the recipient (peer-to-peer).

2. Signs messages to prove the identity of the sender.

3. Ties the keys used for encryption and signing to Instant Messagingscreen names.

4. Extends to all instances of Instant Messaging services such as AIM,including stand-alone client, and mobile clients such as PocketPCdevices that have capabilities near to desktop systems.

5. Minimizes new demands on the Instant Messaging service to preventscaling problems as the number of secure users increases.

6. Performs cryptographic operations in a FIPS validated module (Level 1or 2).

7. Provides basic protection against message replay attacks.

8. Supports applications of Instant Messaging that may be developed inthe future. This includes alert services, forwarding to email, andstorage of messages to offline subscribers.

For file transfers, the invention provides, but is not limited to:

1. Authenticating the users at each end of the file transfer connection;

2. Secure restart;

3. Signatures and receipts.

Messages that are encrypted on the device or desktop are not decrypteduntil they arrive at the intended destination. Designs for instantmessaging that encrypt the data on a hop-by-hop basis (such as SSLprotected channels) are not sufficient since the data is “in the clear”at each host that forwards the message content.

In many cases the origin of the message is important. This isparticularly true of messages that ask the recipient to take someaction, such as stock market orders sent from an account holder to abroker. The recipient must be able to verify the authenticity of theinstant message. Again, solutions that use hop-by-hop protection of themessage do not meet this requirement. A design that allows saving apersistent record of the authenticity of the message is also desirable.

The keys used to encrypt messages, and to verify signatures on receivedmessages are tied to a particular AIM screen name. A certificateauthority (CA) at the AIM service issues a certificate that binds theAIM screen name to a public key (RSA key). A certificate links a singlescreen name with a key. If an AIM user has more than one screen name, hemay enroll each additional screen name to get a certificate based onthat name.

In addition, AIM users may acquire a different certificate to use atdifferent locations (such as home or work locations) where they will useAIM. Issuing certificates for each location is one implementation.Location independent certificates (one per screen name) are alsoprovided. The AIM service deploys several instances of these certificateauthorities to support a large number of secure AIM users.

Each of the CAs that issues certificates for screen names will itself beissued a certificate that indicates its role in the secure AIM system.These certificates are issued by a “primary” secure AIM CA. The primarywill in turn be issued a certificate by the AOL “root” CA (describedbelow).

The instant messaging client includes a certificate (and therefore thepublic key) for the root CA. This root CA is used as the starting pointfor checking the validity of a certificate that claims to associate akey with an AIM screen name.

The instant messaging client generates public/private key pairs, andrequests and installs certificates that associate its screen name withthe key that it possesses.

The design of the secure messaging system is intended to add as littlestate management and processing requirements as possible to the AIMservice itself. Instead, the additional burden is placed on the clientapplications. In particular, the design will minimize the impact on theAIM servers for: bandwidth (size of messages) number of messagesprocessing of messages storage.

There will be some need for additional storage for each connectedclient, but any additional storage or processing for instant messageconversations is kept to a minimum.

The invention's secure messaging system protects against common attacksby keeping data secret, preventing modification of the data, andidentifying the source of the data. The application also prevents somelevel of “replay” attack, where previously sent data is captured(somewhere in the network) and resent to the recipient at a later timeby including timestamp information in the messages.

Secure messages within AIM are based on the existing secure emailtechnology (sometimes called S/MIME). At the current time, this methodis used instead of SSL connections to the AIM servers for the followingreasons: End-to-end protection—SSL connections to the secure serviceleave the message in the clear as it is routed to the eventualrecipient, meaning that instant messaging servers could easily observe(or modify) the contents of messages. Store-and-forward—when therecipient is not immediately available, secure messages can be stored inthe service for delivery at a later time. SSL requires an existingconnection to the destination. Compatibility with email—in the future,secure AIM messages can be delivered by email to applications that usethe existing secure email format. Reduced overhead—SSL connectionsrequire state to be maintained in the clients and the service. Also, theload on the servers would increase due to the computational requirementsof SSL handshakes. Compatible with alert services—the source of thealert can encrypt a message using S/MIME without a direct connection tothe recipient.

SSL may offer advantages over the S/MIME approach in the future. Thismeans that the invention can take advantage of SSL at that time.Although S/MIME and SSL are specifically mentioned in the text, oneskilled in the art will readily appreciate that other securecommunication protocols may be used in place of S/MIME and SSL.

System Overview

Referring to FIG. 3, the components of the invention's secure InstantMessaging system (or Secure AIM) are:

The AOL Root Certificate Authority 301;

The Secure AIM (S/AIM) CA 308;

The S/AIM Subscriber Database 309;

Enrollment Hosting Service (EHS) 304;

The AIM Service 307; and

AIM Clients 305, 306.

The AOL Root CA 301 and the Secure AIM CA 308 provide the certificateissuing and management portion of the infrastructure. The S/AIMSubscriber Database 309 and EHS service 304 provide enrollment of users.The existing AIM Service 307 and clients are modified to supportpublishing S/AIM certificates and handling secure messages.

Publishing refers to a user's ability to have a fingerprint of his S/AIMcertificate distributed to those users on his buddy list (list ofpreferred users) or users that have him on their buddy list. Thefingerprint is sent to the users on his buddy list and/or the users thathave him on their buddy list which enables the users to decide if theyneed to update their caches with a new copy of his certificate.

The AOL Root CA 301 provides the trusted anchor for validatingcertificates used for Secure AIM 302. A self-signed certificate from theRoot CA 301 is built into the clients 320 for Secure AIM. The Root CA301 does not take part in day-to-day operations.

The Secure AIM CA 308 provides certificates that link an AIM screen namewith a public key value. To provide the scalability to support a largenumber of secure AIM users, the Secure AIM CA 308 will be implemented asa “cloned” CA, with additional clone instances 310, 311, 312 added asrequired by the number of subscribers. The AOL Root CA 301 issues acertificate to the set of clones 310, 311, 312.

The S/AIM Subscriber Database 309 maintains information about currentsubscribers. It receives subscription information from “enrollmentagents” and provides this information to the S/AIM CA 308, 310, 311,312.

The Enrollment Hosting Service (EHS) 304 serves as an “enrollment agent”for Secure AIM. As users are added to EHS 304, some of them (dependingon the type of account) are added as subscribers for Secure AIM 302.Other “enrollment agents” can be added to the system. In particular, anindividual subscription service may provide access to Secure AIM 303 byallowing customers to pay for the service using a credit card, or otheronline payment method.

The AIM Service 307 itself is modified to provide a method forpublishing certificates and revocation status information for Secure AIM302 and to allow marking particular instant messages as secure, so thatthe recipient will perform the correct processing. The AIM service 307also controls access to the Secure AIM features by providing thepublishing and secure message delivery only to users listed in the S/AIMSubscriber Database 309.

AIM clients 305 support enrolling in Secure AIM 302 by requesting andmanaging certificates for the user's screen name. The clients send andreceive secure instant messages, validate the certificates associatedwith those messages, and display information about the security of aninstant message conversation to the user.

Secure AIM Subscriber Database 309

The subscriber database for Secure AIM 309 includes the following data:

1. Screen Name (key);

2. Expiration date;

3. Enrollment agent information.

The screen name (in canonical form) is used to search the database andis the key for updating the subscription information. The expirationdate indicates when the subscription ends. The Secure AIM CA 308 (orother CA) uses this value to determine whether a subscriber is stillenrolled and to compute the validity period for certificates that itissues.

Subscriber Database Service.

The subscriber database is part of the AIM Master File or a closelyrelated database file.

There are three types of users of the subscription database; instantmessaging servers, enrollment agents, and certificate issuers.

The instant messaging servers connect to the S/AIM subscription database309 to determine whether a user should be allowed to use the Secure AIMfunctions of the service. In particular, only subscribers are allowed topublish security data (certificates etc.) and send or receive securemessages.

Enrollment agents add and update entries in the SAN subscriber database309 as screen names are added to the Secure AIM subscriber list or thelength of the subscription changes. The agents represent services likeEHS 304, which may provide secure AIM as part of the enterprise packageor a Secure AIM business, which may charge individual users by creditcard.

Certificate issuers (the Secure AIM CAs 308, 310, 311, 312) consult theS/AIM subscriber database 309 to determine whether a subscription existsfor a particular screen name and the length of time it is valid. Thisinformation is used to decide whether to issue a certificate andcalculate the validity period for the certificate.

Enrollment agents and certificate issuers access the S/AIM subscriberdatabase 309 using SSL with an account name and password. Anadministrator for the Secure AIM Subscriber Database 309 assigns anddistributes account names and passwords for the enrollment agents andcertificate issuers.

Secure AIM Subscription

The Secure AIM feature is optional. Users of this capability need tosubscribe to use the service. A list of screen names that havesubscribed and associated data about them are maintained in a directoryor other similar database (the S/AIM subscriber database 309). TheSecure AIM CA 309, 310, 311, 312 uses the S/AIM subscriber database 309to determine whether the user has subscribed to the optional service.

Consumer Enrollment

A regular AIM user can upgrade his account to a secure AIM account byenrolling using the S/AIM service 303. The user will go to an enrollmentweb page (using a normal Web browser), authenticate using his screenname and password, and provide payment data. Once the enrollmentapplication 314 verifies the payment information 315, an entry is madein the S/AIM subscriber database 309 to indicate the new status.

The S/AIM service 303 is an “enrollment agent”. An administrator forS/AIM must contact an administrator for the Secure AIM subscriberdatabase 309 to obtain an account name and password to use for updatingsubscription information. Data that is used only by the S/AIM service(the subscriber's credit card data, email, and other security data) ismaintained separately by the S/AIM service 303. This separate data isused to bill the subscriber, and to support help desk operations.

EHS Enrollment

The EHS service 304 provides AIM screen names 317 for each of its useraccounts (or may provide this as an optional feature). When a new EHSuser account is created, the EHS service 304, 316 assigns a screen name,and inserts a record into the S/AIM subscriber database 309. Theadministrator for the EHS service 304 contacts the S/AIM subscriberdatabase administrator to receive an “enrollment agent” account name andpassword. The EHS administrator configures the EHS user managementsystem 316 using this information.

Enrollment Agent Example: Certificate Issuing Service

A Certificate Issuing Service is a partner for selling secure AIMsubscriptions and issuing certificates that can be used for secure AIM.the Certificate Issuing Service is also an enrollment agent and has theability to create AOL screen names for customers and to add the customerto the S/AIM subscriber database 309. Accounts that are managed by theCertificate Issuing Service are indicated in the subscription database.The Secure AIM RA (see below) uses the information to forwardcertificate requests from the Certificate Issuing Service customers tothe Certificate Issuing Service CA.

Activating Secure AIM

Once a user has subscribed to Secure AIM service 302, he needs to createthe public key pairs and certificates that will be used to providesecurity for the messages. The AIM service 307 notifies the client 305that the user has subscribed to the Secure AIM premium service. If theclient does not have certificates and keys 319 stored to use for SecureAIM, it will activate the premium service by generating keys 320 andrequesting the certificates for them 323. This operation happensautomatically, without any action by the user.

Subscribers to the Secure AIM service are managed by one of theenrollment agents. There are currently three agents defined: premiumservices, EHS and third party (e.g., VeriSign). For the first two,certificate requests are sent to the AOL Secure AIM CA 308, 310, 311,312. For the last, the request is sent to the third party. The S/AIMsubscriber database 309 can be used to indicate which CA should receivethe request 308, 310, 311, 312.

One embodiment of the invention's approach to routing the request is totell the AIM client 305 which CA 308, 310, 311, 312 it should use (aspart of the subscription data). There is a possible security problemwith this approach. It is very important to send the certificate requestto a trusted CA, since the request includes the screen name password.

To resolve this security problem, the client 305 has a single locationfor sending certificate requests (the Secure AIM RA 313). The RA's 313function is to consult the S/AIM subscriber database 309 and route therequest to the appropriate CA 308, 310, 311, 312.

An S/AIM client 305 performs the following steps during activation: 1.Generates two new public key pairs (RSA key, 1024 bits), one for signingand one for key establishment (encryption) or generates one new publickey pair (RSA key, 1024 bits), for both signing and key establishment(encryption). 2. Generates a certificate request, including the AIMscreen name and the new public key. 3. Generates authentication datafrom the certificate request and the user's screen name password. 4.Combines the requests and the authentication data into a certificateenrollment message using CMC (an IETF standard). 5. Transmits theenrollment message to the Secure AIM RA 313. The message is sent over anSSL channel (to protect the screen name password) using an HTTP POSTmethod.

The Secure AIM RA 313 performs the following steps:

1. Looks up the record for the requested screen name in the secure AIMsubscriber database 309.

2. Checks that a subscription record was found, and that the expirationtime for the subscription has not passed.

3. Uses the user's screen name password to verify the authenticationdata in the certificate request.

4. Forwards the request to the CA 310, 311, 312 that is listed in thesubscription database record for the user.

5. The CA creates and signs a certificate that contains the screen nameand the public key. The certificate has a validity period beginning atthe current time and ending at the expiration time of the Secure AIMsubscription.

6. The CA transmits the certificates that were created (along withcertificates needed to create a valid certificate chain to the AOL RootCA 301) to the subscriber via the RA 313.

When the S/AIM client 305 receives the newly created certificates, itstores them in a local database 319 (using the NSS library APIs) andsets preferences for the AIM account to indicate which certificateshould be used.

This activation step takes place at each location where the userconnects using the subscribed screen name. Activation happens only onceat each location.

With respect to FIG. 4, a communication diagram showing interactionbetween modules of the invention during an enrollment sequence is shown.The steps that occur are: 1. The IM client 401 sends a connectionrequest 406 to the IM service 403. The request includes a screen nameand password to authenticate the user and requests subscriptioninformation. 2. The IM service 403 sends a request 407 to an S/AIMsubscriber database 405 to verify the password and retrieve a list ofsubscriptions. 3. The S/AIM subscriber database 405 returns the resultsof verifying the password and the list of subscriptions for the user 408to the IM service 403. 4. The IM service 403 completes the connectionand notifies the IM client 401 whether the secure capability isavailable 409. 5. If the response from the IM service 403 indicates thatsecure IM is enabled, the IM client 401 attempts to locate a certificate410 in a certificate store 402. This can be a local file or in anotherlocation on the network. 6. The certificate store 402 returns thecertificate 411 to the IM client 401 if one is found. 7. If secure IM isenabled, but no certificate is found, the IM client 401 creates acertificate request 412 (including a newly generated public key) andsends it to a registration authority 404 along with a screen name andpassword. 8. The registration authority 404 sends a request 413 to theS/AIM subscriber database 405 to verify that the correct password hasbeen sent in the certificate request. 9. The S/AIM subscriber database405 indicates whether the password was correct and provides subscriptioninformation 414. 10. If the account information is correct and the userhas subscribed to secure IMs, the registration authority 404 returns anew certificate 415 (containing the key) to the IM client 401. 11. TheIM client 401 stores the certificate 416 in the certificate store 402 soit can be used during the next IM session.

Using Secure Aim Sending a Secure Message

This section describes an example of the steps that the AIM clientperforms to send and receive secure instant messages. Both activitiescan be broken into two parts: an encryption (decryption) step and asigning (verification) step.

Signing Steps

1. Locate the signing key and associated certificate

2. Extract the signing identity from the certificate

3. Create the signature on the data using the signing key (RSA)

4. Encode the outgoing message (ASN.1 SignedData):

Encryption Steps

1. Use the desired recipient name to locate a certificate containing thepublic key for encryption.

2. Validate the certificate according to local rules (Gives level ofcertainty).

3. Generate an AES key to encrypt the message (AES Key Generation)

4. Wrap the AES key in the user's public key (RSA-OAEP)

5. Extract identity information from recipient's certificate that willbe used to specify the public key used to encrypt the message.

6. Generate an IM and encrypt the outgoing data

7. Encode the outgoing message (ASN.1)

The encryption steps can be divided into two portions: first, a validkey for the user is identified and used to wrap a newly generated AESkey (steps 1 4); the wrapped key value can be associated with therecipient name. In the following steps (5, 7), this wrapped value andthe AES key is used to generate the outgoing message. See the discussionon session establishment (below) for a way to reuse the value from thefirst portion of the process to improve performance.

Receiving a Secure Message

A CMS Enveloped message contains the following data: identity of thewrapping key (usually issuer and serial number from a certificate, butkey id is allowed); wrapping algorithm and parameters (usually RSA whichhas no parameters); a wrapped key value; the encryption algorithm andparameters (usually AES, which has an IV); the encrypted data.

Decryption Steps

1. Parse the incoming message, and recover the identity of the key.

2. Check that the identity of the key matches the one being used by thedevice or, if more that one key can be active, locate the correctprivate key from its related certificate. The identity value from thecertificate can be preconfigured on the device, so no certificateprocessing is required here.

3. Unwrap the encryption key. This uses RSA private key operations. Forexample, for AES, the OAEP padding scheme may be required and for 3DES,standard PKCS #1 padding may be required.

4. Decrypt the data using the unwrapped key:

Decryption Summary

ASN.1 Parsing for a limited set of the CMS (RFC 2630); look up key byIssuer & Serial Number (comparison code); RSA unwrap operation,generating an AES key (RSA-OAEP); AES decryption.

Publishing Certificates

The invention provides the ability to publish digital certificates for auser, as well as basic MIME awareness for the IM message body. Thisallows for several interesting possibilities, including S/MIME secureIMs and secure peer-peer sessions.

For S/MIME secure IMs, the sending client can request the encryptioncertificate for a buddy. This certificate can be cached. Aftervalidating the certificate against the buddy's screenname, the sendingclient then takes the IM plaintext, encrypts it according to PKCS #7,marks the message as a PKCS #7 encrypted message, and sends it over thenormal IM channel. Upon receipt, the receiving client notes that themessage is an encrypted message and decrypts the message to get the IMplaintext. If the sender signed the message, the recipient can thenrequest the sender's signing certificate and use it to verify thesignature.

Certificates are of nontrivial size, and so requesting certificates forevery message would be very inefficient. As a result, when a userpublishes a certificate, users who buddy list this person will receivean hash of the user's certificate info. Therefore, when certificates arereceived, they can be cached and, as long as the hash of the cachedcertificates matches the hash received in the buddy updates, there is noneed to re-request the user's certificates.

Use Examples

The complete S/MIME secure IM use case looks like this:1. User A signs on, has user B in buddylist, publishes secure IMcapability and certificates.2. B signs on, has A in buddylist, publishes secure IM capability andcertificates. 3. A receives B's certificates hash.4. A creates plaintext IM.5. A gets B's certificates from cache, if present, or from S/AIM server.6. A verifies B's encryption certificate.7. A applies MIME headers to plaintext IM.8. A generates signature of MIME IM using A's private signing key.9. A encrypts MIME IM using B's public encryption key.10. A generates new IM according to PKCS #7 from result ofencryption/signature.11. A tags new IM as application/pkcs7-mime.12. A sends new IM to B.13. IM server checks that B has secure IM capability and can thereforeunderstand secure IMs.14. B receives IM from A.15. B notes that IM is of type application/pkcs7-mime, and is signed.16. B gets A's certificates from cache, if present, or from server.17. B decrypts IM with B's private encryption key.18. B verifies signature using A's public signing key.19. B generates new plaintext IM from result of decryption.20. B displays plaintext IM.Steps 7 11 and 17 19 can also be performed automatically by the S/AIMclient. When a user is sending a message to someone not on his buddylist, he will not have the other user's certificate hash, so the cachingstrategy has to be different. For example, one approach can be to getthe certificates when sending the first message and then discard thecache when closing the window. In the rare event that the sending userchanges certificates in the middle of a message, the message sent to therecipient will fail in the decryption stage; the recipient can then senda client-error back to the sender to indicate that the sender shouldre-fetch the certificates and send again.

Referring to FIG. 5, a communication diagram showing interaction betweenmodules of the invention during the publishing of a user's certificatesequence is shown. The steps that occur are: 1. IM client 1 501 attemptsto locate a certificate 506 in certificate store 1 502. 2. Certificatestore 1 502 returns the certificate 507 to IM client 1 501. 3. IM client1 501 sends (publishes) the certificate 508 to the IM service 505, whichthe IM service 505 stores. 4. IM client 1 501 sends a request 509 to theIM service 505 to receive updated information on another user (buddy) inthe IM service 505. The IM service 505 records the request. 5, 6, 7. IMclient 2 503 locates a certificate 510, 511 for Secure IM and publishesit 512 in the IM Service 505. 8. The IM Service 505 sends updated buddyinformation 513 about IM client 2 503 to IM client 1 501. Thisinformation includes online status and an abbreviated value(hash/digest) computed from the published certificate. 9. IM client 1501 compares the abbreviated value of the certificate with thecertificate it has for the buddy, if any. If the values do not match, IMclient 1 501 sends a request to the IM Service 505 to deliver the newdata 514. 10. IM Service 505 sends the current certificate for the buddy515 to IM client 1 501.

The certificate data that is published can include other informationsuch: as separate certificates for operations such as signing orencryption; additional certificates for creating “chains”; or updatedrevocation status information.

AIM Screen Names

Screen names on the AIM service are a sequence of alphanumericcharacters. Upper and lower case are equivalent for screen names. Theservice allows the user to “format” the name by choosing upper and lowercase, or by inserting spaces into the name.

When screen names are stored in the S/AIM subscriber database orincluded in a certificate, the name will be canonicalized by convertingall characters to lower case, and removing all spaces. For example, thescreen name “Aim User 1” will be converted to the standard “aimuser1” inthe database and in certificates.

When comparisons are made between screen names (for equality), eachinput value must be converted to the standard form. For example, whenthe AIM client verifies that a certificate belongs to a particularscreen name, it must convert the screen name received in the IM to thecanonical form before comparing it to the name found in the certificate(which is already converted).

Friendly Names

Because of the number of screen names in use on the AIM service, nameschosen by the EHS service during provisioning will usually be onlyloosely based on the identity of the user within the EHS service. Forexample, “user@coke.com” might be given a name like “UserC73960”. Thescreen name assigned to an EHS customer might not be familiar to anotherperson that is trying to communicate with them.

The enterprise version of the AIM client is able to use a directory totranslate ordinary screen names into “friendly” names, which will berecognized more readily. For example, “UserC73960” might be displayed as“user@coke.com”, or even “John Q. User, Coke Inc.” The address bookportion of the AIM client will perform this translation. This isadditional processing beyond the normal work for S/AIM. The securitycomponents of S/AIM (certificates, encrypted messages) use the assignedAIM screen name.

Cell phones currently have a feature that is like this. Cell phones willdisplay the phone number of an arriving call and allow the user to entera phone number to make a call. However, the address book portion of thecell phone software can be used to display a friendly name when a callarrives or use a friendly name to locate a telephone number.

The AIM service supports screen names that look more like emailaddresses. Even if this is done, the enterprise client can use the“friendly name” lookup to display the first and last name of the otheruser instead of an email address.

Certificate Contents and Policies

The AIM client is configured with a private key and a certificategenerated by a portion of the AIM service. The S/AIM client has the keyof the S/AIM CA built in. This built-in certificate is used to determinethe validity of a screen name certificate.

Certificates

The certificates generated by the S/AIM CAs are intended to bind an RSApublic key to a particular screen name. RSA public keys are used becausethe RSA public key algorithms directly support both encryption (forsetting up encryption keys) and signatures (for signing messages). Usinga single key for both operations simplifies the management of keys andcertificates, and reduces the data that needs to be published on the AIMservice.

Multiple certificates may be issued and be valid simultaneously for asingle screen name. A user may want to have access to S/AIM featuresfrom multiple locations, such as the office or at home. The user canenroll for a separate key and certificate at each location using theenrollment PIN that is created during account setup.

Certificates are generated using RSA signatures only.

Certificate Contents

The S/AIM certificate will contain the following fields: X.509 versionnumber (v3) Issuer Name Serial Number Validity Time Subject Name RSAPublic Key S/AIM Policy extension Certificate Subject Alternative Name

If a certificate is issued to a user with a known AOL Screen Name, thescreen name will appear in the “Other Name” field of a SubjectAlternative Name extension. The “Other Name” field is a pair of values:a name type (Object ID) and a name value. AIM screen names will beidentified with an OID taken from the Netscape OID space.

The data stored in this extension will be the canonical AIM screen namepossibly encoded using the UTF-8 character set.

Certificate Validation

Prior to using a key contained in an S/AIM certificate to encrypt an IM,the client verifies that the certificate correctly ties the key to thescreen name of the other end of the conversation (the peer). To be validfor use in S/AIM, the certificate should chain to a trusted rootcertificate.

In addition, the subject name in the certificate should have the correctform (as defined above) and the common name (CN) component of the nameshould match the screen name of the peer.

If these requirements are met, the key can be used to validate asignature on a message from the screen name or to encrypt a message tothe screen name.

Certificate Revocation

Certificates need to be revoked for two distinct reasons: 1. The namecontained in the certificate is no longer valid. This can occur when theuser changes names, or an account is terminated. 2. The key that iscertified has been compromised (or suspected to be compromised).

The AIM CA will not revoke certificates solely because of changes in theaccount status (termination). There are likely to be a large number ofchanges in account status, which would cause large numbers ofcertificates to be listed on a CRL. Instead, only keys (actuallycertificates corresponding to keys) that are compromised will be listed.

Since the AIM service prevents screen names from being reused for someperiod of time, we can prevent a situation where two certificates forthe same screen name are valid for different users by requiring thecertificate to expire within the reuse interval.

Compromise of a key corresponding to a screen name will require that theuser stop using the screen name for secure messages until thecertificate for that key expires. The user should create a new screenname, and transfer the subscription to that account. The old screen nameshould be deactivated.

Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) Services

Secure AIM will use OCSP to request and distribute revocation status forcertificates. CAs that issue certificates for S/AIM will provide an OCSPresponder that is publicly available. The certificates that are issuedfor S/AIM include the location of the OCSP responder in the AuthorityInformation Access extension.

To improve the scaling of the OCSP operations, OCSP requests will beperformed by the AIM clients once per login, or every 24 hours on theirown certificates. The results of this. OCSP request (the signed statusresponse) will be published in the AIM service as part of thecertificate data record.

AIM clients download the certificate data record prior to verifying thesignature on a message they receive, or sending an encrypted message toa buddy. The client will verify that a recent OCSP status response (onceissued in the last 24 hours) is present in the data record.

With respect to FIG. 6, a communication diagram showing interactionbetween modules of the invention during the publication of a user'scertificate and revocation information sequence is shown. The steps thatoccur are: 1. IM client 1 601 attempts to locate a certificate 606 incertificate store 602. 2. Certificate store 602 returns the certificate607 to IM client 1 601. 3. IM client 1 601 creates and sends a requestfor revocation information about the certificate 608 to the revocationservice 605. Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is one possiblerevocation service. 4. Revocation service 605 creates revocationinformation 609 for the certificate that is valid at the current timeand will be valid for some specified time period. 5. IM client 1 601publishes the certificate and revocation information 610 to the IMservice 604. 6. IM client 2 603 sends a request 611 to the IM service604 to retrieve the certificate and revocation information for a buddy.7. IM service 604 returns the information 612 to IM client 2 603. IMclient 2 603 check that the revocation information is sufficientlycurrent and that it shows the validity of the certificate.

More than one certificate may be published to the IM service. Therevocation information can contain data about all of the certificates orseparate revocation information may be published for each certificateused. The IM client may store revocation information (possibly in thecertificate store) and reuse it during a later session if the validitytime period requirements are met.

Certificate Validity Period

As discussed in the section on certificate revocation, the validityperiod of AIM certificates needs to be tied to the policy that is inplace for reuse of an abandoned screen name. The validity time forcertificates will be set to the reuse time period less a safety factor.

Other Certificate Contents

In addition to the basic certificate data fields (Issuer Name, SerialNumber, Subject Name, Validity and Key), S/AIM certificates contain thefollowing extension: Certificate Policy—contains a new policy OID toidentify S/AIM certificates.

Secure Session Establishment

This section discusses a way to improve the processing time forindividual messages by precomputing a set of session keys that will beused for each message in a “conversation”. This adds complexity to theapplication. Also, the format that it generates will probably beincompatible with the standard S/MIME PKCS #7 format, which mightprevent forwarding the message to the recipient by email.

Normal use of the CMS protocols requires two public key operations foreach message: one for wrapping the key (enveloping) and one for signing.On desktop systems these operations are reasonable. On slower deviceslike the Mobile Communicator (MC), the private key operation is veryslow (8 sec). The major factor in performing the decryption operation isthe private key step required to recover the encryption key (using RSA).This step can be saved if the remote party reuses the previousencryption key value in subsequent messages. Note that reusing the keyrequires that a block cipher with varying IVs, or a stream cipher thathas an additional key derivation step built in (using a salt value).

Similarly, the major factor in sending messages is the signature, whichrequires a private key operation. This step can also be saved onindividual messages by creating an integrity key. This key is signed(with the RSA key) once, and then re-used in following messages in the“conversation”.

Algorithm Negotiation

Another preferred embodiment of the invention provides a method to allowvarious devices to participate in the secure IM environment and to allowmigration to future algorithms. The invention allows the algorithms usedfor encryption, integrity, key management and signing to be negotiable.

Since there is no direct communication between the parties of theconversation (user and buddy) during session establishment, informationabout each participant's preferences for algorithms must be available ina different way. This information is security sensitive, since anegotiation that results in a weaker set of algorithms that may havebeen chosen otherwise is undesirable (rollback attacks).

Default Algorithms

A set of default algorithms is defined that will be used in the initialdeployment of the secure messaging application. However, the protocolallows other (more recent or locally preferred) algorithms to be used.

There are three points where cryptography is used in this securemessaging protocol: the (optional) message signature; bulk encryption ofthe (possibly signed) message; establishment of the bulk encryption key.

Notification of Certificate Change.

The invention provides a notification service for changes to thepublished certificate field. This service is used by AIM clients toupdate the certificate information for their buddies or for people theyare conversing with. Without this service, a client would be forced topoll the service for updated information or rely on the information thatwas current when a conversation is started.

When the value of the certificate field changes (either due to a newvalue being stored by the user, or a sign-on/sign-off event), theservice delivers the screen name of the buddy together with the newversion value in the certificate field. The recipient of this messagecan decide whether the new certificate value is different than theprevious version, or locally cached version, and if needed, request theentire certificate.

AIM Client UI

The client UI for secure messaging clearly displays the status of thedata that is received. In addition, it indicates the level of securitythat will be applied (or was applied) to outgoing messages. Thisinformation is indicated by using icons in the general portion of aconversation window, and on each message that is displayed.

Creation of Conversation Window

A conversation window is established in two cases: 1) the user initiatesa message addressed to a particular buddy; and 2) an incoming message isreceived from a buddy. In both of these cases, a conversation window isestablished for communication between the user and the specific buddy.

For secure IM, a client will attempt to establish a secure session keyduring creation of the conversation window. If this operation succeeds,the window is created with U1 elements that indicate that the window issecure. If no session can be established, then the U1 indicates a normalconversation. Notice that the window will display the status of outgoingmessages. It may still be possible to receive and display secureincoming messages. Also, the security status of a conversation windowmay change if the buddy changes devices or locations.

Display of Conversation Messages

The conversation window displays both incoming and outgoing messages.The display area for these messages has an area reserved for displayingthe security status of each message individually. Outgoing messages havean indicator that shows whether the message was encrypted when it wassent. Incoming messages have icons for the encryption and the signaturestatus of the incoming message.

Note that over time, the status of the conversation may change. Forexample, the buddy may send a message using a desktop client that doesnot have secure IM capabilities. This message would not have thesecurity icons displayed with it. Later, the buddy may start using hisMobile Communicator. Messages sent from this device that are encryptedwould display the indicators for an encrypted and/or signed message, asappropriate.

Session Key Management

The conversation window is also the center of the session keymanagement. A conversation window is established for communicating witha particular buddy. The session key established for that conversation iskept in a context associated with the conversation window. If the windowis closed or deleted, the key will be lost. If a new conversation isestablished, a new key will be generated, signed, and wrapped fortransfer to the buddy.

Secure File Transfer

This section describes an exemplary high level design for addingsecurity features to the aim file transfer feature.

Confidentiality

Data transferred using the file transfer protocol is encrypted while itis transmitted over the network. Encryption is only required during thetransfer. The data will be stored at each end in the normal (plaintext)form.

Integrity

The data transferred using the file transfer protocol is protectedagainst alteration while it is transmitted over the network. Theprotocol ensures that the correct data has been received for an entirefile or document, even when only parts of the file are transmittedbecause portions of the file were already on the recipient's system(partial transfer mode).

Identity

The protocol provides a way to identify both the sender and therecipient of a data transfer. In particular, the identity of a user thatis requesting a file must be securely established so that access controldecisions can be made based on that identity. The identity of the usertransmitting the file needs to be securely established so that therecipient can be sure it is receiving the information from the source itexpected.

Receipts

The secure file transfer system provides a method to generate a receiptthat indicates that a file or document was received and will beprocessed. Receipts contain a date, the name of the file and (possibly)a value computed from the contents of the file. Receipts are representedas PKCS #7 Signed Data values.

Receipts are different in meaning from “signatures”. That is, eventhough the syntax (the format) of the receipt is the same as asignature, the semantics (meaning) is different. Receipts acknowledgethat the data was received and will be processed while signatures are away for the signer to assert the correctness of the data.

Signatures

The secure file transfer system provides a method to generate acryptographic signature on a file or document that can be used to verifythe data in the file and the identity of the signer. Signatures can bestored separately from the contents of the file, so that applicationscan use the transferred file without needing to process signaturevalues.

The file transfer protocol could transmit signatures as an additionalfile associated with the primary file.

Compatibility

The secure file transfer protocol is compatible with clients that do notsupport the secure mode. Secure clients are able to perform filetransfers without the security features, and display the status of thetransfer to the user.

Design Peer-to-Peer SSL Channel

Secure file transfer uses SSL to secure the peer-to-peer connection thatis used to transfer messages in the file transfer protocol (includingthe file contents). SSL is used for this component instead of S/MIME forseveral reasons: SSL provides integrity for the protocol messages inaddition to the file contents. This protects against changes to valuesin the messages such as the name of the file being transferred. SSL(together with certificates) identifies the user at each end of theconnection. This information may be used by the user to decided whetherto accept an incoming request to send or receive a file. SSL providesencryption while the file data is being transferred.

S/MIME technology is used to provide signatures on the data. Inparticular, the client provides digital signatures on files by using the“detached signature” data format from the Cryptographic Message Syntax(CMS).

Establishing the SSL Channel

If both clients in the file transfer are capable of secure mode, thepeer-to-peer connection made between them is established using SSL. Theability to use the secure channel will be indicated in the proposaloffered by the client initiating the request, and must also be indicatedin the acceptance to the proposal.

The SSL channel is authenticated at both ends by using certificatesissued for AIM screen names. The AIM client accepting the connection(listener) uses an “encryption” certificate to perform the role of anSSL server. The AIM client establishing the connection uses a“signature” certificate to perform the role of an SSL client.

The clients use the existing file transfer protocol (with somemodifications) over the SSL channel. The SSL channel will providesecurity for protocol records (headers etc). This provides privacy forthe file names being transferred, and prevents modifications to therequests and responses in the protocol. In addition, the identitiesestablished by SSL are used to make access control decisions.

Partial File Transfer Hash

When a portion of a file is already present on the recipient's system,the file transfer protocol tries to optimize the data bandwidth bysending only the remainder of the file. The protocol includes an(optional) value that is a SHA-1 hash of the portion of the file that isalready available. The algorithm used to compute the hash will also besent in the message to allow changes in the future. The sender checksthis value to determine whether to send the entire file, or just theremainder.

The sender sends the entire file if the hash does not match or it doesnot recognize the algorithm used for the hash. The transfer never failswhen the hash does not match—instead the entire file is resent.

Receipts

The file sender is able to request a receipt by setting a bit in one ofthe protocol header fields. When the transfer is complete, the recipientconstructs the receipt and sends it in a protocol record before thenormal completion record.

Signatures

Signatures are generated by a signature generation tool and can bestored in a separate file with a related file name. For example, adocument called “expenses.xls” would be “signed” by the tool, creating anew file called “expenses.xis.sig”.

Clients that support secure file transfer recognize the relatedsignature file and transfer the two files together or offer to transferthe signature in addition to the data file itself.

Clients that support secure file transfer can create these signaturefiles “on the fly” by creating the contents in a temporary location (orin memory) and transmitting them to the recipient by specifying therelated file name. This operation might be invoked by checking a box inthe file transfer UI.

Secure Chat

Providing security for chat sessions is more difficult than peer-to-peerconversations, since keys must be distributed among several parties. Inaddition, the requirements on the type of signature may change, sincemore than two parties are participating.

Encryption

Include each party as a recipient in each message. Generate a singlechat room key, which is distributed in chat “invitations”.

Including each party as a recipient is just like the current secureemail deployments. Each message contains multiple “recipientinformation” sections, which transfer the message key to a singleparticipant in the chat.

An alternative is to create a single key for encrypting the chatmessages (the chat room creator might do that), and distribute that keyin the messages that are used to invite people to the chat room. Thisapproach changes the form of the encrypted message (the message isaddressed to all participants in the room as one party).

Location Independence

Instead of allowing the user to certify multiple keys for a screen name(to support several locations), a Location Independence service can beprovided that downloads the keys to the AIM client when the user logson.

Multiple Certificate Policies

Additional certificate policy values can be defined that indicatedifferent levels of authentication of the subscriber. For example, a“Bronze” level certificate might indicate that the certificate wasissued directly by the AIM service (OSCAR) itself during login, while“Gold” might indicate a carefully validated EHS account.

Audited Instant Messages and Escrowed Keys

Some companies have a requirement to log all communications betweentheir employees and others. To provide this service, three additions tothis design are necessary. 1. Escrowed encryption keys. This allowscompany officials to recover the contents of messages when required. 2.Encrypting instant messages to the escrowed key, in addition to theprimary recipient. This feature should be optional since it putsadditional computational requirements on the client. 3. An audit logproxy that records messages. The proxy might also enforce theaudit/escrow policy by blocking messages that are not encrypted using anescrowed key. In addition, it might also strip off the additionalencryption information to reduce the size of the message on the way tothe primary recipient.

Although the invention is described herein with reference to thepreferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat other applications may be substituted for those set forth hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the claims includedbelow.

1. A process of facilitating the exchange of secure data via an instantmessaging system comprising the steps of: receiving a certificate,wherein the certificate is issued to a first user and associated withthe first user's screen name; wherein the certificate includes a publickey; responsive to receiving the certificate, determining based on thefirst user's screen name, a list of preferred users associated with thefirst user's screen name; sending the certificate to a second IM clientthat is associated with a second user on the list of preferred users;receiving an encrypted IM message from the second IM client, wherein theencrypted IM message is encrypted using the public key included in thecertificate; sending the encrypted IM message to a first IM clientassociated with the first user.
 2. The process of claim 1, wherein thecertificate is issued by a certificate authority; and the certificate isreceived from the first IM client.
 3. The process of claim 1, furthercomprising: calculating a hash value for the certificate; sending thehash value to the second IM client; sending the certificate responsiveto receiving a request to send the certificate to the second IM client.4. A process of facilitating the exchange of secure data via an instantmessaging (IM) system comprising the steps of: receiving at a second IMclient a hash of a certificate issued to a first user; determining basedon the hash to request the certificate issued to the first user;receiving the certificate, and storing the certificate in associationwith the hash; wherein the certificate includes a public key associatedwith the first user; receiving an IM message entered by a second user,the IM message addressed to the first user; encrypting using the firstuser's public key the IM message entered by the second user; and sendingthe encrypted IM message addressed to the first user.
 5. The process ofclaim 4, wherein the hash is a first hash and determining furthercomprises: retrieving a second hash stored in association with thecertificate issued to the first user; comparing the first hash with thesecond hash; determining to request the certificate responsive todetermining that the second hash does not match the first hash; ordetermining to request the certificate responsive to failing to find thesecond hash stored in association with the certificate; or determiningto use the certificate stored in association with the second hashinstead of requesting the certificate responsive to determining that thesecond hash matches the first hash.
 6. The process of claim 4, whereinencrypting the IM message entered by the second user further comprises:generating a conversation encryption key value; and storing theconversation encryption key value in the encrypted IM message.
 7. Theprocess of claim 6, further comprising: receiving an encrypted IMresponse message entered by the first user; decrypting the encrypted IMresponse message using the conversation encryption key value; andencrypting subsequent IM messages addressed to the first user using theconversation encryption key value.
 8. The process of claim 4, whereinencrypting the IM message from the second user with the first user'spublic key includes attaching an encryption algorithm to the encryptedIM message; wherein the attached encryption algorithm is used to encryptthe encrypted IM message.
 9. A process of facilitating the exchange ofsecure data via an instant messaging system comprising the steps of:receiving at an IM client an encrypted IM message addressed to a firstuser; wherein the encrypted IM message is encrypted with the firstuser's public key; decrypting the encrypted IM message using a privatekey associated with the first user's public key; displaying to the firstuser the IM message entered by the second user.
 10. The process of claim9, further comprising: receiving an IM response message entered by thefirst user; encrypting the IM response message; and sending theencrypted IM response message to the second user.
 11. The process ofclaim 10, wherein decrypting the encrypted IM message further comprises:extracting from the decrypted IM message at least one of a conversationencryption key value or an encryption algorithm.
 12. The process ofclaim 11, wherein a conversation encryption key value is extracted fromthe decrypted IM message; and further comprising encrypting the IMresponse message using the conversation encryption key value.
 13. Theprocess of claim 11, wherein an encryption algorithm is extracted fromthe decrypted IM message; and further comprising encrypting the responseIM message using the encryption algorithm.
 14. An IM server for thesecure exchange of data via an instant message (IM) system comprising: aprocessor programmed for receiving a certificate, wherein thecertificate is issued to a first user and associated with the firstuser's screen name; wherein the certificate includes a public key; aprocessor programmed for, responsive to receiving the certificate,determining based on the first user's screen name, a list of preferredusers associated with the first user's screen name; a processorprogrammed for sending the certificate to a second IM client that isassociated with a second user on the list of preferred users; aprocessor programmed for receiving an encrypted IM message from thesecond IM client, wherein the encrypted IM message is encrypted usingthe public key included in the certificate; a processor programmed forsending the encrypted IM message to a first IM client associated withthe first user.
 15. The IM server of claim 14, wherein: the certificateis issued by a certificate authority; and the certificate is receivedfrom the first IM client.
 16. The IM server of claim 14, furthercomprising: a processor programmed for calculating a hash value for thecertificate; a processor programmed for sending the hash value to thesecond IM client; and a processor programmed for sending the certificateresponsive to receiving a request to send the certificate to the secondIM client.